The Turnbull government has called for public submissions on ways to boost the supply of affordable rental housing across Australia using innovative financing models.

It says affordable housing is "too large a problem" for governments to solve and finance alone, and it needs help designing financing models that will boost the supply of homes for low-income households.

The models focus on the social housing sector, and the private rental market, and are meant to target low-income households.

"One of the keys to increasing the supply and availability of affordable rental housing is attracting investment," Social Services Minister Christian Porter said.

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"Improvements in the area of attracting investment to affordable housing supply will require innovative and collaborative approaches across the private and not-for-profit sectors, and with states and territories."

According to the Bureau of Statistics, in 2013-14, of the 3.6 million low income households in Australia, 26.8 per cent had housing costs greater than 30 per cent of their gross household income.

Rental or mortgage stress is defined as spending more than 30 per cent of your income on housing costs.

Data also shows 40.3 per cent of low income households with a mortgage in 2013-14 had housing costs above 30 per cent, compared with 50.1 per cent of renters.

That means roughly 657,000 low-income households are in rental stress in Australia and around 318,000 low-income households are in mortgage stress.

The Productivity Commission said this year that 187,500 households remain on waiting lists for public and community housing across Australia.

The government's call for submissions comes after it established a working group last month to identify ways to boost affordable housing for low income households, and to implement trials of models in co-operation with states and territories.

It has asked that submissions take into account the current constrained fiscal environment across the Commonwealth and states and territories.

Public submissions are open until March 11, 2016. A small number of roundtables with industry and academic experts will be held during the submission process.

The working group is expected to provide its final report, including recommendations for possible trials and next steps, to the Heads of Treasuries by 30 June 2016.